Life wasn't quite so tough in the many almshouses erected in Wales. Usually paid for by wealthy patrons who believed that they would be buying their ticket to heaven, they are often architectural treasure houses. Choosing between great examples such as Corwen, Chepstow, Llanrwst and Knighton wasn't easy, but we settled on the delightfully picturesque Elizabeth Owen Terrace in Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd. Still owned by a charitable trust, this beautiful row of tiny cottages is allocated to local parishioners at affordable rents. We meet up with Delyth Lloyd Jones and find a beautiful home that has been decorated with the interior flair you'd associate with a grand country house.

'It is a small house, a very small house', admits Delyth, 'but it is cosy and easy to heat, and it has real personality. Everyone who passes says how pretty these almshouses are.'

The Elizabeth Owen terrace is a row of simple 'one up, one down' cottages, yet (like many almshouses) has an extravagant exterior with dressed stonework, cast-iron 'gothick' windows, and decorative chimneys and barge boards. It seems that by the mid nineteenth century even the poor were to be allowed a modicum of taste and fashion.